Masaharu Niō
Background Masaharu Niō (仁王 雅治, Niō Masaharu) is a third year from Rikkaidai Fuzoku. Even within the strongest corps, Niō is rumored to be "the most troublesome guy". Reading ten to twenty moves in advance, his forte is a style of play where he deceives his opponent, but that skill takes great artistry, as many others can attest. He can perfectly copy anyone's tennis style, but he is limited by his own physical abilities. This creates the illusion that his opponent is facing a copy of themselves. Appearance Nio has silver-gray hair that is in a ponytail type style. Sometimes he is known to dress up as someone else so he can trick his teamates or rival players Personality Nio's nickname is "The Con Artist Of The Courts" and this is shown in "Genius 359: Nightmare" when Niou was playing against Seigaku's Fuji. Niō impersonates Atobe Keigo to make Kabaji Munehiro follow him when all the Middle School losers were climbing the mountain, he ordered Kabaji to carry Momoshiro who was, then suffering from broken wrists. And second was when he ordered Kabaji to get him pillows to join the pillow fights between the Middle Schoolers. Niō has a habit of saying "Puri!" "Piyo!" and more recently "Pupina!" History Two Years Prior To The Storyline Niou began Rikkai Dai along with the rest of the Rikkai 3rd Years as 1st years. Sometime during this time, Niou convinced golfer Hiroshi Yagyū from the golf team to join tennis. They practiced together and eventually became doubles partners. One Year Prior To The Storyline Niou became a regular during his 2nd Year at Rikkai Dai. During this time, Niō lied to Kirihara on where was the tennis club room, and he tricked Kirihara a second time when he disguised as Sanada and told Kirihara to run 100 laps. Regionals During the Kantō finals, Niō and Yagyū shocked his opponents when they revealed that they had been impersonating each other. They switch to confuse their opponents, changing their appearance, personalities and play styles for half the game. This make them undefeated in doubles. Nationals Niou and Rikkai Dai head into the Nationals as underdogs after losing their Regional tournament but after the return of their captain Yukimura Seiichi, they believe victory will be certain. Niou and Rikkai Dai annihalate their opponent until they reach the Semi-Finals against Nagoya Seitoku. After losing the first two sets, Kirihara Akaya makes a 5-0 comeback to destroy Liliadent Krauser for 7 straight games and win, Niou partnered with Yanagi Renji easily defeat their opponents while it is revealed that Yagyuu Hiroshi, Marui Bunta and Jackal Kuwahara lost their matches on purpose and could acutally have easily defeated their opponents. Niou in action at the Nationals.jpg|Niou in action in the Nationals Final Singles 2 against Fuji. In the National finals, even his teammates were stunned when he "became" Tezuka Kunimitsu and later Kuranosuke Shiraishi to take on Shūsuke Fuji. He imitated all of Seigaku's Kunimitsu Tezuka's moves including the Tezuka Zone and Zero Shiki Drop Shot, but Fuji saw through the illusion. He then made the illusion of Shitenhoji's Kuranosuke Shiraishi and tried to imtidate Fuji, but Fuji saw through the illusion and declared that he never loses to the same person twice. He then used his final counter, Hoshi Hanabi, and won the game 7-5. Prior to the U-17 Camp Niou and the rest of Rikkai Dai carry on with their training after the Nationals, Yukimura Seiichi decides to make sure the players have fun while playing tennis after suffering his first official loss. However, during a training session, Yanagi Renji arrives to practice with a large amount of Inui Juices to show Rikkai Dai. The team, believing that Seigaku also enjoyed it, (unfortunately) willfully drank the drink. This is due to Rikkai Dai refusing to attend the Prince of Yakiniku challenge that Seigaku, Hyotei, Rokkaku, Higa, and Shitenhōji took part in just before the Nationals final (they were unaware of what side effects the Inui Juice put on those who drank it). The drink ended up wiping all members of the club. Also sometime during this period, Niou and Yagyuu bumped into the Fuji Siblings at the cosplay section of the department store as shown through the Anime PairPuri. Niou tries to scare the Fujis, but was ineffective. They were there because Yagyuu wanted to know where Niou got all the things he used for his tricks. With the appearence of the Trickster and the Gentleman, the Mizuki of the St. Rudolph regular & co. that were following the Fuji siblings believed both Seigaku and Rikkaidai were trying to recruit Yūta Fuji. U-17 Camp Niō and the rest of Rikkaidai was invited to the U-17 Camp along with the other Middle Schoolers. He played a singles match with his doubles partner Yagyū Hiroshi and lost. He trained in the mountain with the Drunken Coach and came back with the other Middle School losers and became a player of the 2nd Court. When the Top 20 U-17 Camp players arrive back to the camp from their Foreign Expedition, Niou watches on with Oishi Shuichiro the sound defeat of Washio Issa and Suzuki Shun by the Mutsu twins who were No.15 and No.16 representatives of the Japan U-17 Camp at the time. He and Oishi request a doubles match against the identical twins pair Mutsu Yūho and Mutsu Yūma. Niō once again used Illusion and impersonated Kikumaru Eiji thus he was able to use the Synchro with Oishi and took a game from the twins quickly. However, the twins have more physical strengths and abilities in Synchro. So as the twins become Synchronized, they begin to crush Niou and Oishi. Niou and Oishi, realizing they are about to lose desperately think of a plan. Niou, showing that he had now furthered his Illusion ability so greatly that he could become not only any Middle Schooler but also any High Schooler. Before they became exhausted, Niō impersonated the twins and Synchronized with them. With the three of them Synchronized as triplets, Niou was able to disturb the play by making them play shots and stand in position that would make them vulnerable to Oishi Territory. Niou and Oishi's plan works and the two make a miraculous comeback and defeat the twins making Niou the No.15 All-Japan Junior Representative. Upon the night of their return, Niou returned his No.15 badge as he wanted to aim for a higher representative spot. This is revealed when Atobe calls him from outside Niou's room which was formerly Room 201 but Niou renamed the room label as Niou Kingdom as a pun on Atobe Kingdom. The next day, the match for No.s 10 & 9 take place with No.10 Mūri Juzaburō who was Niou's former Rikkai teammate who won the Nationals with Rikkai last year who was paired with former Hyotei Gakuen Captain Ochi Tsukimutsu known as the High School Doubles Specialists. As Muuri and Ochi step on to the court waiting to find out their challengers, Atobe Keigo steps onto the court by himself, surprising those around him. He shouts out to Niou, who steps onto the court as his partner. Immediately, Niou uses his Illusion to again become Seigaku's Tezuka Kunimitsu who had recently travelled to Germany, shocking the courts even more. Tennis Record 2008 Official Middle School Tournaments U-17 Camp Results Playing Style and Techniques Niou is an All-Rounder and is able shown to be very able in both Doubles and Singles. He is also amongst the few characters who have been shown to be ambidextrous. Since in the Kanto Regionals Final he played for several games with his Right-Hand while pretending to Yagyuu. He is also able to live up to his nickname as The Trickster. As he is able to create an Illusion in which he can become other Schoolers and behave and perform as them within his physical capabilities which explains why he is shown to only imitate School players. Illusion : Niou creates an Illusion which gives the impression that he has become a different opponent. He can become almost any School player since he has become a vast variety of other schoolers such as Tezuka Kunimitsu, Shiraishi Kuranosuke, Kikumaru Eiji and . Through these Illusions, he can use almost all of the techniques of the player he has become. Making him an extremely troublesome opponent. Trivia *Niō’s favorite color is blue, and his hobby is playing darts. *He is left-handed, which means that up to the point when the switch was revealed, both he and Yagyū were playing with their non-dominant hands for the match against the Golden Pair. *He is played by Masataka Nakagauchi and Taisuke Wada in the musicals. *He is known as the 'Trickster' the only Rikkaidai member Inui Sadaharu doesn't have a data on. Category:Characters Category:Tennis Player Category:Rikkaidai Tennis Club Member Category:Middle Schooler Category:3rd Year Middle School Category:U-17 Camp Category:Left-Handed Category:Ambidextrous Category:All-Rounder Category:Kanagawa Players Category:Kanto Players